Hawk to Drone – Get Out of My Sky

One hawk didn’t take to kindly to a drone recently. Christopher Schmidt has been flying his quadcopter a few times a week since he bought it six months ago.

With a GoPro strapped on, his October 8th flight got a bit more interesting. A hawk swooped in and knocked it to the ground as he flew above Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Equipment is fine,” Schmidt said in an e-mail to The Washington Post. “The reason it dropped was entirely because my first reaction was to reduce throttle to reduce any risk to the hawk. It fell straight down. The hawk seemed completely non-plussed; he flew off without any signs of damage.”

Drones have been used to capture incredible footage recently, such as the footage of Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano.

But, as the hawk video shows, they can put wildlife at risk. The National Park Service has even gone as far as banning the use of drones at Yosemite National Park.